Despite X-Men: Apocalypse’s warm welcome, some are criticizing a promotional billboard which depicts the Apocalypse character strangling Mystique, portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence.
One particular critic is actress Rose McGowan, who recently stated, “There is a major problem when the men and women at 20th Century Fox think casual violence against women is the way to market a film. There is no context in the ad, just a woman getting strangled. The fact that no one flagged this is offensive and frankly, stupid…”
The controversial image is not only affecting actresses, but prominent bloggers nationwide. Journalist EV Grieve posted a message on said poster above a New York subway station with several pieces of paper that formed the sentence, “This violence in my kid’s face is not okay.”
Jennifer McCleary-Sills is the director of gender violence and rights for the International Center for Research on Women, whom also had a thing or two to say on the matter: “I understand that some might not see it as an issue because it is a film about violence … with male and female characters who are warriors and fighting each other as equals.” She explained that the image can affect many viewers negatively, despite its fictitious nature.
McCleary-Sills further added, “There are no silver bullets. I’m glad that a bit of a stink has been raised about this and that people are being provoked to think about why this image isn’t OK and why [the studio] could’ve done better.”
Other critics include Devin Faraci, the head editor for the blog Birth Movies Death, who called the image “Tone deaf as hell.” Other people are expected to surface as popular opinion spreads.